Stitching Stuff

After a break from stitching - partly caused by moving, partly caused by general blahs - I think I'm back to wanting to stitch again. Note: this doesn't mean there will be lots of finishes to show - there's far more likely to be lots of starts :D

But there is at least one finish to show you - DD's jumper (along with reluctant model). And due to my misreading the pattern I made it a size bigger than I intended - this is probably a good thing as I took two years to knit it. On the other hand she is on the smaller side, so it's still too big on her - but at least it will last until next winter, especially since we managed to miss most of this winter (I only finished it a couple of weeks ago). In some photos you can almost tell the sleeves and hood are a different wool to the body - that's because, once again, I failed to read the pattern properly and didn't see the listing for the number of balls of wool to buy until I'd finished knitting. And of course, when I went back to get more wool after finishing up the body and running out of my initial purchase, that wool was no longer available. Oh well, I managed to get fairly close and you mostly can't tell unless you're looking close.

Then I suppose I should give an update of where I'm up to on the wedding sampler (don't think this will be making the first anniversary either):

I think that was all I was in the (active) middle of doing.

So now some new stuff.

First an Easter basket (designed by Cindy Hambrick):

Halloween Treat (an ANG chapter book project by Marilyn Owen) started 2 weeks ago:

And the ANG class I did just this weekend - Austin Postcard by Denise Derusha:

Now do I correct the spelling of weird or do I keep it wierd?

I also got the Texas postcard so hopefully that will show up sometime soon.

I've also signed up for a number of other classes - somehow the buying bug didn't disappear along with the stitchy one, so who knows, maybe some of them will show up here sometime soon too :) And of course as I unpack my stash boxes (almost got some shelves) I might find other things...

This past weekend was our local EGA chapters biennial show. I entered 15 pieces - 8 of which needed finishing first, 1 was framed, the rest I did. I only just scraped in on time - I misjudged how much time I'd have to finish things while our international exchange visitors were here and so ended up with 6 things to finish in 3 days. But I did it. And the judges were impressed enough with two of my (framed) pieces that I got two merit awards.

So without further ado - what you've all been waiting for - photos:

The two ribbons (sorry - I did take my camera to the show, but completely forgot to take actual photos of the ribbons on the pieces and them all on display). They were awarded for An Open Heart and Linda's Celtic Heart.

An Open Heart

Knotwork Garden Box

Tree of Stitches

Bug Collector (I actually found a cool fabric with ants on a gingham background that would have been great if I hadn't already had the fabric I wanted to use, and if it hadn't been red and white and just plain didn't go with pink)

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Birds of a Feather (love the backing fabric on this one, so you get a picture of the back too)

Winter Welcome (I think I need to learn how to make points better lol)

Tempest (and just cos I feel like it, the back on this one too)

Other pieces I entered were Lindas Celtic Heart, Christmas Elf Fairy, African Animals Needlebook, Southwest Amulet bag, Christmas Humbug, Smarties Bookmarker and the Art Deco beaded Ornament. The only requirement was that pieces hadn't been entered into one of their shows before - so that meant that I could choose anything I had that was finished, or I could finish before the show. So I tried to choose a selection of interesting pieces that would hopefully interest people and make them want to stitch.

Speaking of humbugs and other biscornu type finishing shapes - this weekend I'm teaching a construction class for the diamond drop ornaments, 15 sided biscornu (in both the round and horned versions), and the humbug (we're calling the class biscornu variations). I also tacked on the end of the instructions the basic fold the corners of the square in to get a diamond shape just for good measure. I'm just starting to stitch a sample or two, so I'll have to show those to you later (if I remember to take photos as I'm planning for it to also be my donation to the groups seminar basket so I won't be bringing it home).

In other news - I've finished the back of the jumper I'm knitting for DD:

Tomorrow is beading group and we're working on bracelets from February's Bead and Button magazine. Somehow I managed to buy materials not only for the bracelet we'll be doing tomorrow, but for another one from the mag too. Course these may not get completed tomorrow but I'm sure there will be something I can photograph. I did have great fun at the shop choosing the supplies and decided that one of the bracelets will probably be for DD - in pink and purple of course.

And a picture of a recent visitor:

I was looking for something for a birthday present recently and found this (Shalom right at the bottom) - that I love, but unfortunately think it's slightly out of my price range. DH is convinced I can design my own - I'm not so sure, but I'll give it a go :)

Recently I started knitting a jumper/cardigan/hoodie for my daughter - here's my progress so far:

Important things to know about this - this is only the second article of clothing - or in fact anything that's not a plain rectangular type shape - no I lie, there was also a small hat (about 1" diameter) on circular needles for a teddy bear (despite my collecting toy patterns, I don't think I've ever knitted one) - and the first thing that isn't plain knit/purl that I have knitted. And I should mention about that first jersey - it was a bat-wing style with roll neck that I could pretty much wear upside down and my mother ended up unravelling and re-knitting in a new design for me.

And look - I even managed to find a photo of me wearing it when I was a teenager :)

So this is going to be an interesting undertaking :) I brought some cheap wool (yarn - which is probably more accurate since I don't think there is a bit of real wool in it) to do a first run through in case I mucked it up. So far it's going well though - the only mistake was not reading the bit about starting on smaller sized needles for the ribbing. I'll have to do that for the rest of it, but I'm not undoing this part.

If you are wondering with that history why I'm now trying to knit something that's a bit more than plain knitting in a rectangle then I have to confess I tend to think of knitting much the same as I do stitching - if you can do the basics (for knitting that would be knit, purl and casting on and off) then you can pretty much do anything you like. So far it's working :)

Now - going back to speaking of my mother - she has (finally :p) started her own blog of stitching (right here). My header says I started this blog to keep track of my WIP's - which is true - but the other half of the reason is that I started it to share with my stitching with Mum as she lived half a world away (and still does even we're both in different countries now than we were then), so now I get to see her stitching too. She's the one that taught me to stitch and does much neater work than I do.

Another project I started this month is a quilt for DD - a pink and purple and sparkly princess castle creation. Applique - on my new sewing machine - my old one (apart from being the wrong sort of power and having to be used with a transformer) is starting to fall apart and they can't get the parts for it so I figured I needed a new one sooner or later. Since a lot of the stitching for this quilt would be on the front I really wanted it all done on the same machine - which if I was borrowing machines every time I went to the quilting bee it wouldn't be. So it was the push I needed to look around and end up with a Singer Quantum. Loads of features for a reasonable price.

No photos of the quilt yet though as I've only got as far as cutting small shapes out. The original pattern was for a cot quilt so I was all set to just enlarge borders, when the instructor suggested that I enlarge the pattern and make the whole castle bigger. That meant a little delay in starting while I figured out all the changes - but I think I'm almost there now.

Also starting this month is the SAL for Tony Minieri's Stars for the New Millennium. I have all my threads and things ready to go, but have decided to wait just a little bit since I am supposed to be finishing a correspondence class (Stained Glass Sampler) by December and a wedding gift (Happily Ever After) by April - neither of which have got very far (not helped by over a month of not stitching).